News Archive

The Teaching and Learning (T&L) Committee continues its good work in improving the quality of the student experience at the Business School.  A summary of these initiatives are included.

Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS)

PASS, a peer-facilitated, cooperative support scheme for students, commenced in Semester 1, 2008 and was an instant success in terms of student interest. Peer learning is recognised as a powerful learning technique and research has shown that students who study together outside the classroom achieve better results. The 800 places available were taken up very quickly and a number of students could not be accepted.

Students gave a very positive evaluation of the program and 91% of respondents said they would recommend PASS to other students. We will be conducting research to examine the performance of students who attended PASS sessions but the survey results show students are confident of achieving better results due to participation in PASS. Thanks to Eva- Marie Middleton who has done an excellent job as the coordinator of the PASS program and to Michael Sutherland and Eileen Thompson for their assistance with PASS.

Tutor training program

The Business School's tutor training program continues to grow with over 40 attending the program in first semester of the year. The workshop received very positive evaluations from the new tutors. Thanks goes to Eileen Thompson for arranging the workshop as well as Michael Sutherland, Naomi Segal and Inga Kristoffersen for their assistance in leading discussion groups during the workshop.

Excellence in Teaching Awards

The first round of nominations for the second year of faculty based teaching awards was held in May. Our faculty received considerably more nominations with a total of 137 of which 126 were from students. It is terrific to see so many of our students engaging with the awards. Once again, some staff received multiple nominations and there were some nominations for staff in other faculties. The following is a breakdown of the number of business school staff nominated for excellence in teaching award by category:

Undergraduate coursework                  26
Postgraduate coursework                     27
Research supervision                            3
Tutor                                                 17
Adjunct lecturer                                    8
Early career                                          3
Citations                                              3
Team teaching                                      1
Total                                                    88

Distinguished Senior Fulbright Scholar to visit UWA

Professor Larry Michaelson is coming to Australia as a Senior Fulbright Scholar for the second half of 2008 and will be based at the University of Sydney.  During his stay he will be visiting Perth and will conduct workshops at UWA on August 25. He will be discussing two exciting concepts in teaching and learning relating to team-based learning (TBL) and the integrated business experience (IBE) . Professor Michaelson is a pioneer of both these teaching and learning developments and we are very fortunate to have him visit.  He designed the IBE program at The University of Oklahoma and ran it there for 9 years prior to moving to the University of Central Missouri where it has been in the UG program for 4 years.

The program involves linking three required junior-core courses to a practicum in which 20-35 member student companies create and manage a start-up business (based on a REAL money loan of up to $5,000) and use the profit to implement a hands-on community service project.  More details will be provided closer to the event but for more on IBE visit

https://ibe.ucmo.edu/mccords_ibe/ibe-site/site/index.html

Associate Professor Phil Hancock

Associate Dean-T&L